Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
Job 31:3 is poetry, standing in the second part of the book, the arguments or colloquies between Job and his three friends on the cause and object of human suffering, covering chapters 3 through 31. That debate on the subject of his afflictions in chapters 4 to 31 is made up of three circles or rounds of speeches on the part of each, and it is the second of four parts of the book, coming after the prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2 and before the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37 and the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud, with the prose epilogue in chapter 42 verses 7 to 17 closing the book, which is the oldest poetical book to have come down.
Destruction is the fate, punishment, and portion of the wicked, with a distinct and fitting strange punishment for workers of iniquity and those who do evil. In this verse destruction means utter ruin and complete annihilation. That punishment belongs to the future day of judgment, not to the moment of death.
The verse belongs to a setting in which Job was one of the richest men of his day yet did not trust in his riches nor rejoice because his wealth was great, but trusted in the living God and remembered that God gave power to get wealth, looking upon his wealth only as a means of blessing the poor, the needy, the fatherless, and the widow. Being rich is not sin, while loving riches, trusting in them, putting confidence in them, rejoicing in them, and becoming proud and highminded because of them denies the God that is above and brings destruction on wicked workers of iniquity. The chapter containing the verse shows that Job's protestation of integrity is stronger evidence of honesty than merely claiming to have paid all debts to other people.
Job 31:3 is poetry, standing in the second part of the book, the arguments or colloquies between Job and his three friends on the cause and object of human suffering, covering chapters 3 through 31. That debate on the subject of his afflictions in chapters 4 to 31 is made up of three circles or rounds of speeches on the part of each, and it is the second of four parts of the book, coming after the prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2 and before the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37 and the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud, with the prose epilogue in chapter 42 verses 7 to 17 closing the book, which is the oldest poetical book to have come down.
Destruction is the fate, punishment, and portion of the wicked, with a distinct and fitting strange punishment for workers of iniquity and those who do evil. In this verse destruction means utter ruin and complete annihilation. That punishment belongs to the future day of judgment, not to the moment of death.
The verse belongs to a setting in which Job was one of the richest men of his day yet did not trust in his riches nor rejoice because his wealth was great, but trusted in the living God and remembered that God gave power to get wealth, looking upon his wealth only as a means of blessing the poor, the needy, the fatherless, and the widow. Being rich is not sin, while loving riches, trusting in them, putting confidence in them, rejoicing in them, and becoming proud and highminded because of them denies the God that is above and brings destruction on wicked workers of iniquity. The chapter containing the verse shows that Job's protestation of integrity is stronger evidence of honesty than merely claiming to have paid all debts to other people.